Jane Woodhead asks why the killer of a beautiful but troubled teenager is still at large

A YEAR has now passed since the murder of teenager Shafilea Ahmed - but still her killer hasn't been found.

Despite a team of detectives working around the clock in search of evidence which could help to bring the person - or people - responsible to justice, the question remains ...

"Who would have killed such a beautiful young girl?"

It's a question that is haunting Shafilea's relatives, and today family solicitor, Milton Firman, spoke of their concern that a year on the case has still not been solved.

"The parents are distressed by the fact that they have had no news from the police," he says.

"Although they have been released from their bail they feel as if the finger of suspicion is pointing directly at them which they believe to be grossly unfair."

Mr Firman adds that the family believes the time has now come for the police to accept that they have no evidence against them.

"They now want the police to work with them to find the true killer of their daughter."

The past 12 months have seen intense police activity. Various people have been arrested, released and bailed. No-one has been ruled out of their murder investigation.

Today, DCI Geraint Jones from Cheshire Police has renewed his appeal for information.

"We would still encourage anyone who, for some reason, may not have come forward already to contact us. Any conversations will be treated in confidence," he says.

The pretty 17-year-old had been a happy and bubbly student at Priestly College in Warrington. She was studying AS levels and hoped to become a lawyer.

But in the months before she died, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the teenager felt troubled.

In January 2003 she ran away from home and spent several days with friends before returning to her family.

A month later, on February 10, Shafilea and her father, Ifitkar, flew to Pakistan to attend a family wedding. Her mother, Fazana, sister and brother followed several days later. At some point during this trip, Shafilea is believed to have been introduced to a suitor, but turned him down.

Speaking after her death, Shafilea's parents denied they had tried to organise an arranged marriage for her.

Her taxi-driver father said: "A distant family member did ask us for our daughter's hand in marriage, but she said she was not ready for such a thing. I said I respected her wishes and we left it at that."

While in Pakistan, Shafilea drank bleach and spent 10 weeks in and out of hopsital. She was later flown home to Warrington.

Just weeks later, her life came to a brutal end.

Her parents saw her at 11pm on September 11 in the kitchen at the family home. A week later she was reported missing by teachers at her former high school, Great Sankey, after they overheard Shafilea's sisters discussing her.

Her parents said they did not report her missing because, her father has said, they "assumed she had obviously gone with her friends, or her boyfriend".

Two months later police said they believed she could be dead.

Shafilea's parents were arrested on suspicion-of kidnap four weeks later, but were released on police bail. Five months on, a woman's body was pulled from the River Kent in Cumbria. It was later confirmed that the body was Shafilea's. It was so badly decomposed it could only be identified by DNA. Police say they may never know exactly how or where she was killed.

Speaking at the time, DCI Jones said: "Now we have found the body, the pressure is on and whoever murdered Shafilea must know that we will find them out."

Yet a year later her killer is still at large.

Following the discovery of her remains, police searching her home discovered songs in her bedroom which revealed she felt torn between her Pakistani parents' Muslim culture and the British one outside her home.

In one, Happy Families, Shafilea referred to the clash of cultures and her family's preoccupation with "honour."

They deny all involvement and say they are being pursued only because of a lack of other suspects.

On Friday, seven members of the family - not including Shafilea's parents - who have been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice are due to answer their bail.

At the family's neat semi detached home in Great Sankey this week, Shafilea's mother Fazana would not come to the door.

Instead a polite and quietly spoken young man said that his mother and father did not wish to speak about their daughter's death.